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31_days2013-02-14 10:50 pm
linachu.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2013-02-14 10:50 pm
[feb 14] [Slayers] Darkness Turned Flesh
Title: Darkness Turned Flesh
Day/Theme: 14. What do I care for the words of the world?
Series:Slayers
Character/Pairing: Lina, Xelloss, Naga.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: AU version of how Slayers NEXT ends. It's amazing what a sentence never said can change the course of action. Martina never gives Lina that final nudge in choosing Gourry over the world, and then it's too late in the end. Part of a larger story.
There are some things – well, a lot of things – Xelloss despised about humanity. Things he never thought he would ever, ever experience.
After all, what need do mazoku have to take a shit?
“Well, this is certainly awkward,” he expresses with a slight smile, despite his circumstance. He’s chained up to a wall, wrists bound by shackles and wearing only trousers. His confinement cell is warm and muggy and his flesh is layered in thin, glistening sweat.
Real flesh. Real blood, pumping in real human veins.
As you can see, he’s certainly not what he used to be.
“Oh, for the love of—” Lina sighs and calls the Saillune guards in, rubbing her temples. She exists the room to let the deed be done, not knowing whether to be amused or frustrated that Xelloss is now plagued with human functions. He’s struggling with it. He’s struggling with it all, but Lina still doesn’t know how he got into this predicament and who did it to him.
Her suspicions went first to Hellmaster, but instinct told her Hellmaster doesn’t have the type of power to change one of his kind into a breathing, living human. That eliminated everyone else under him in the hierarchy of things, which means only one thing.
Whoever did this has more power than Hellmaster. And the only things that have more power than Hellmaster, well…
When the guards exit, she’s told the coast is clear and re-enters. He looks uncomfortable with a wavering smile. Who wouldn’t? She uses the wooden stool before him as a seat and crosses her legs, her eyebrow rising at him questioningly.
“May I help you, Miss Lina?”
“Why are you being so difficult?” she asks with a sigh. Lina Inverse isn’t what she used to be, either. She’s young still but taken over by an old soul. Once bright, orange hair is now reduced to a dim auburn, lifeless and not cared for. A puffy pinkness around the rims of her eyes signify sleep hasn’t been around much lately, but a fire continues to burn. A dim fire, but a fire nonetheless. A fire that should have been snuffed months ago with all that happened.
With all that happened with them.
He tilts his head to the side, eyes opening to examine her more closely. Instead of those cat-like slits, his irises have become perfectly round and human. “What’s the point? I’m no use to you.”
“Bullshit,” Lina snaps and abruptly gets up. She gets closer and examines his wrists, freshly wounded from being bound. It’s a sign he struggled recently. They are still pink and raw, and even though she knew guards were keeping an eye at them from the doors, her fingers enclose around his hands and she murmurs a quick recovery spell. In a matter of seconds, his flesh is back to normal. “I saved your life. You owe me. And I doubt you becoming human suddenly erased your pretty little memories.” She taps on his head. “You’ve got some insight to Phibrizzo. You were kind of his bitch, after all.”
“A crude way of saying it,” he says with a weak chuckle. “But you know all that I know. His plans, and how he’ll kill everything you’ve ever loved until you have nothing more to lose.”
A quiet rage boils and rises inside her, and she does her best to refrain from throwing a spell to fry his ass. His words bring her back to that night. Amelia. Zelgadis. Zangulus. Sylphiel. Martina.
Gourry, encased in that crystal tomb. Not long before that she battled him to kill him without even realizing it, and knowing she had used such a destructive spell on him killed her.
Phibrizzo killed them once; their bodies falling, eyes lifeless and empty. She remembers Martina choking out words, trying to say something but she fell limb before something coherent could come out.
And then he killed them again, shattering the crystallized tombs like he shattered those little golden orbs in those little baby fingers of his.
A thick knot forms in her throat, and Lina painfully swallows. “The last I have left is my family, and I doubt he’s ready to go up against the Ceiphied Knight for that.”
“Oh, he will. And he’ll win.” He grins now, but it’s not the same sinister grin she used to know. Not long ago his entire being was composed by threads of evil and a sweet, deceitful smile. All he is doing now is desperately trying to fit back into what he used to be. A monster, and not some feeble human who has to use the goddamn bathroom every few hours. Or that hungers and hurts and requires sleep. Being a human is utterly and completely tiresome. “You know he’s trying to break you. Why else would he pull the puppet strings on your dead friends?”
Lina cracks her fingers. There’s that urge again; the urge to cast a spell and destroy something to let out some pent up frustration. This pent up, simmering hurt. Because not only did she have to witness all her friends dying before her eyes, but now they were being paraded around like marionettes. With their faces, their memories, their voices and feelings.
Phibrizzo found her through Gourry once. Her heart stopped beating, turned black and shattered into a million pieces when their eyes met again. Because she knew what was happening. She knew what was going on. And the entire time, it was Gourry telling her: “You made the right choice.”
Even if that choice meant everyone’s death.
She should have done it. Cast the damn spell, and hope for the best. She should have picked him.
“How about the rest of the mazoku lords?” Lina presses and paces in front of him. “Deep Sea? Dynast?” And then, a pause. “Beastmaster?”
He snorts.
“Well?”
“That…is a secret.”
Within an instant, she grabs his head by the roots of his hair and slams the back his skull against the stone wall. He lets out a cry of pain and then quiets into a hiss, glaring at her. “Welcome to humanity,” Lina growls. “Human pain. Human feelings. Feels different I bet, huh? Can’t exactly use my emotions to strengthen you? You’re weak and a snack to dragons, you know. By the way, you know how many golden dragons are begging me for your head? You’ve got quite the reputation, don’t you?”
Xelloss says nothing. His breathing is heavy. He feels his heart race furiously under his chest and all these sensations are foreign to him. All new and overwhelming and now that he’s suddenly over-powered…he doesn’t take it well.
Because he has a goddamn heart.
“You’re not mazoku anymore, so your loyalties lie with shit.” Lina finally releases him. Her temper’s calming down some, but not by much. “You have to let it go, Xelloss. Because keeping their secrets and their dirty laundry isn’t going to magically make you what you used to be.”
That’s what it is. That’s exactly what it is. A once powerful mazoku, reduced to something with a lifespan and a ticking time-clock. Reduced to something with too many needs, something weak and filled with overwhelming emotions. All he’s trying to do is hold on what used to make him, him.
And little did he know that’s as human as he could get.
“Welcome to the rest of the goddamn world, Xelloss. Because your instinct now is to survive in it; not destroy it.”
When she leaves the dungeon is when she hears the thrashing again and knows how bad his wrists will become. He’s screaming nonsense that echoes through the walls. A woman she knows all too well is waiting for her at the end of the hallway; arms crossed and ice blue eyes glancing at the direction of their prisoner.
“Anything yet?” Naga asks. Or Gracia. You can imagine how many bricks Lina must have shat when she found out that not only is Naga Amelia’s older sister, but Gracia, Saillune’s oldest princess. How the hell does Prince Phil end up having two girls like that?
“I’m getting there.”
“You really think he’s going to join our side, little Lina?” There’s a condescending tone Lina isn’t appreciating and she scowls at the princess.
“Your dad’s too much of a pacifist to kill him. And having someone that was so high in the ranks, and is a handful of centuries old, is going to be filled with insight I’m gonna need if we’re gonna take this power-tripping midget down. Got it?”
Naga rolls her eyes and follows her back to the surface of the castle. “Wonder if things would have been easier if you just listen to him and cast the stupid spell.”
“We’d all kinda be dead.”
“We’re already there, Lina.” They exit through the balcony that overseas the kingdom and then some.
All they see is ruin.
Day/Theme: 14. What do I care for the words of the world?
Series:Slayers
Character/Pairing: Lina, Xelloss, Naga.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: AU version of how Slayers NEXT ends. It's amazing what a sentence never said can change the course of action. Martina never gives Lina that final nudge in choosing Gourry over the world, and then it's too late in the end. Part of a larger story.
There are some things – well, a lot of things – Xelloss despised about humanity. Things he never thought he would ever, ever experience.
After all, what need do mazoku have to take a shit?
“Well, this is certainly awkward,” he expresses with a slight smile, despite his circumstance. He’s chained up to a wall, wrists bound by shackles and wearing only trousers. His confinement cell is warm and muggy and his flesh is layered in thin, glistening sweat.
Real flesh. Real blood, pumping in real human veins.
As you can see, he’s certainly not what he used to be.
“Oh, for the love of—” Lina sighs and calls the Saillune guards in, rubbing her temples. She exists the room to let the deed be done, not knowing whether to be amused or frustrated that Xelloss is now plagued with human functions. He’s struggling with it. He’s struggling with it all, but Lina still doesn’t know how he got into this predicament and who did it to him.
Her suspicions went first to Hellmaster, but instinct told her Hellmaster doesn’t have the type of power to change one of his kind into a breathing, living human. That eliminated everyone else under him in the hierarchy of things, which means only one thing.
Whoever did this has more power than Hellmaster. And the only things that have more power than Hellmaster, well…
When the guards exit, she’s told the coast is clear and re-enters. He looks uncomfortable with a wavering smile. Who wouldn’t? She uses the wooden stool before him as a seat and crosses her legs, her eyebrow rising at him questioningly.
“May I help you, Miss Lina?”
“Why are you being so difficult?” she asks with a sigh. Lina Inverse isn’t what she used to be, either. She’s young still but taken over by an old soul. Once bright, orange hair is now reduced to a dim auburn, lifeless and not cared for. A puffy pinkness around the rims of her eyes signify sleep hasn’t been around much lately, but a fire continues to burn. A dim fire, but a fire nonetheless. A fire that should have been snuffed months ago with all that happened.
With all that happened with them.
He tilts his head to the side, eyes opening to examine her more closely. Instead of those cat-like slits, his irises have become perfectly round and human. “What’s the point? I’m no use to you.”
“Bullshit,” Lina snaps and abruptly gets up. She gets closer and examines his wrists, freshly wounded from being bound. It’s a sign he struggled recently. They are still pink and raw, and even though she knew guards were keeping an eye at them from the doors, her fingers enclose around his hands and she murmurs a quick recovery spell. In a matter of seconds, his flesh is back to normal. “I saved your life. You owe me. And I doubt you becoming human suddenly erased your pretty little memories.” She taps on his head. “You’ve got some insight to Phibrizzo. You were kind of his bitch, after all.”
“A crude way of saying it,” he says with a weak chuckle. “But you know all that I know. His plans, and how he’ll kill everything you’ve ever loved until you have nothing more to lose.”
A quiet rage boils and rises inside her, and she does her best to refrain from throwing a spell to fry his ass. His words bring her back to that night. Amelia. Zelgadis. Zangulus. Sylphiel. Martina.
Gourry, encased in that crystal tomb. Not long before that she battled him to kill him without even realizing it, and knowing she had used such a destructive spell on him killed her.
Phibrizzo killed them once; their bodies falling, eyes lifeless and empty. She remembers Martina choking out words, trying to say something but she fell limb before something coherent could come out.
And then he killed them again, shattering the crystallized tombs like he shattered those little golden orbs in those little baby fingers of his.
A thick knot forms in her throat, and Lina painfully swallows. “The last I have left is my family, and I doubt he’s ready to go up against the Ceiphied Knight for that.”
“Oh, he will. And he’ll win.” He grins now, but it’s not the same sinister grin she used to know. Not long ago his entire being was composed by threads of evil and a sweet, deceitful smile. All he is doing now is desperately trying to fit back into what he used to be. A monster, and not some feeble human who has to use the goddamn bathroom every few hours. Or that hungers and hurts and requires sleep. Being a human is utterly and completely tiresome. “You know he’s trying to break you. Why else would he pull the puppet strings on your dead friends?”
Lina cracks her fingers. There’s that urge again; the urge to cast a spell and destroy something to let out some pent up frustration. This pent up, simmering hurt. Because not only did she have to witness all her friends dying before her eyes, but now they were being paraded around like marionettes. With their faces, their memories, their voices and feelings.
Phibrizzo found her through Gourry once. Her heart stopped beating, turned black and shattered into a million pieces when their eyes met again. Because she knew what was happening. She knew what was going on. And the entire time, it was Gourry telling her: “You made the right choice.”
Even if that choice meant everyone’s death.
She should have done it. Cast the damn spell, and hope for the best. She should have picked him.
“How about the rest of the mazoku lords?” Lina presses and paces in front of him. “Deep Sea? Dynast?” And then, a pause. “Beastmaster?”
He snorts.
“Well?”
“That…is a secret.”
Within an instant, she grabs his head by the roots of his hair and slams the back his skull against the stone wall. He lets out a cry of pain and then quiets into a hiss, glaring at her. “Welcome to humanity,” Lina growls. “Human pain. Human feelings. Feels different I bet, huh? Can’t exactly use my emotions to strengthen you? You’re weak and a snack to dragons, you know. By the way, you know how many golden dragons are begging me for your head? You’ve got quite the reputation, don’t you?”
Xelloss says nothing. His breathing is heavy. He feels his heart race furiously under his chest and all these sensations are foreign to him. All new and overwhelming and now that he’s suddenly over-powered…he doesn’t take it well.
Because he has a goddamn heart.
“You’re not mazoku anymore, so your loyalties lie with shit.” Lina finally releases him. Her temper’s calming down some, but not by much. “You have to let it go, Xelloss. Because keeping their secrets and their dirty laundry isn’t going to magically make you what you used to be.”
That’s what it is. That’s exactly what it is. A once powerful mazoku, reduced to something with a lifespan and a ticking time-clock. Reduced to something with too many needs, something weak and filled with overwhelming emotions. All he’s trying to do is hold on what used to make him, him.
And little did he know that’s as human as he could get.
“Welcome to the rest of the goddamn world, Xelloss. Because your instinct now is to survive in it; not destroy it.”
When she leaves the dungeon is when she hears the thrashing again and knows how bad his wrists will become. He’s screaming nonsense that echoes through the walls. A woman she knows all too well is waiting for her at the end of the hallway; arms crossed and ice blue eyes glancing at the direction of their prisoner.
“Anything yet?” Naga asks. Or Gracia. You can imagine how many bricks Lina must have shat when she found out that not only is Naga Amelia’s older sister, but Gracia, Saillune’s oldest princess. How the hell does Prince Phil end up having two girls like that?
“I’m getting there.”
“You really think he’s going to join our side, little Lina?” There’s a condescending tone Lina isn’t appreciating and she scowls at the princess.
“Your dad’s too much of a pacifist to kill him. And having someone that was so high in the ranks, and is a handful of centuries old, is going to be filled with insight I’m gonna need if we’re gonna take this power-tripping midget down. Got it?”
Naga rolls her eyes and follows her back to the surface of the castle. “Wonder if things would have been easier if you just listen to him and cast the stupid spell.”
“We’d all kinda be dead.”
“We’re already there, Lina.” They exit through the balcony that overseas the kingdom and then some.
All they see is ruin.